Professional Heroes
by Blue Zombie
Summary: Ponyboy is critically injured in the fire at the church, not Johnny.  Johnny's POV.
1. Chapter 1

I knew Dally didn't want us to go back and all, but I thought I had to. I couldn't keep Pony with me and have his brothers getting all worried and everything. So we're in the car that Dally's driving like a maniac and I see the smoke a ways off. I see it first, I think, because Dally is concentrating on what he's saying and barely looking at the road. He's saying, "Johnny, you don't know what a few months in jail can do to you," and all that stuff. But it won't be a few months. I killed someone. It'll be forever, if they don't stick me in the electric chair. And Pony didn't see the smoke first since he was in the backseat. And the second I saw it I knew it was our fault, it was our cigarettes done that.

Dally pulls up and slams to a stop and me and Pony jump out, because he's thinking what I'm thinking, and that is that it's our fault. And we hear kids screaming from inside and it's just getting worse and worse. I couldn't believe how many people were ending up hurt because of me. But not this time. I had this flash of the thought about the dead soc lying there in the moonlight. And I ran for that church with Pony. We'd save those kids. Dally was yelling at us that we were crazy and he'd beat both of us if we didn't get back there. But neither me or Pony listened.

We got the kids out, and then the roof started to cave in, and it was so hot in there and smoky and I couldn't breath I was coughing so bad. Pony was, too. Then the next thing I know Dal's there just as the roof starts to fall, and he grabs me and pulls me out of the church. My jacket's on fire and Dally whacks it to put it out, then pushes me to the ground and I pass out. But right before I do I see him going back in the church to get Ponyboy.

When I wake up it's dark and I'm in some kind of car, and I can hear a siren so I figure the cops got us. I don't feel as scared as I thought I would. But when I open my eyes I see that it's not a cop car, it's an ambulance, and that guy from the church, that fat teacher guy is sitting next to me. There's one of those oxygen things in my nose and I'm burned from where my jacket was on fire and it really hurts. I try to sit up but the teacher guy pushes me back down.

"Just lay down," he says, and I squint at him and look around for Pony and Dally. I don't see them.

"Ponyboy? Dallas?" I say, kind of hoping they are here even though I know they're not.

"They're fine, they're in the other ambulance. What are you boys, professional heroes or something?" he says, and I almost laugh at that.

"Naw. We're greasers," I say, but I don't mention that me and Pony are wanted for murder, or really just me. Pony didn't do nothing.

"What? Are you serious?" he says.

"Yeah," I say, and every time the ambulance hits some bump in the road it hurts, or maybe it's just the burns that are hurting. I reach up to get the oxygen tubing out of my nose and the teacher guy stops me.

"Leave it," he says, and so I just lay there, getting more and more nervous.

"How's Dally and Pony?" I say, wanting to sit up and get that stupid thing out of my nose, and I wanted to look out the window to make sure we were really going to the hospital and not the police station.

"Uh, which one is which?" he says.

"Dally's got the white blond hair, and he's taller," I said, not that sure how to describe Pony.

"I think he'll be okay. But the other one, I don't know…"

I tried not to get so worried and worked up about that but I was. If I thought Darry and Soda would want to kill me before that would be nothing compared to now. If Pony was really hurt I didn't know what I'd do.


	2. Chapter 2

I knew we were going to the hospital, and as some kind of shock wore off I was feeling worse and worse. That jean jacket was little protection from the fire and probably made it worse. But that didn't matter. Ponyboy mattered. But I thought about the kids that were in the church. At least they were okay.

We get to the hospital and they wheel me into the E.R. on a stretcher and some doctor puts some stuff on the burns that are all on my back and shoulders and chest and then puts bandages on that and looks critically at me.

"Maybe I should admit you, those burns are pretty bad," he says, and I shake my head.

"They ain't so bad, I'll be fine," I said, and tried not to wince in pain. But I wondered which would be worse, being in the hospital or being in jail. But the doctor didn't admit me, although he still looked like he wanted to.

"Alright," he said, "even though you're not showing it, I know you're in pain. So here," the doctor said, and handed me two white pills. I took them without even asking what they were.

Half an hour later I was in the waiting room and I felt high. Everything was kind of, I don't know, unreal and happy. But under the drug happiness was the worry. I'd seen them wheel in Dally and Ponyboy, and Dally looked fine, and he yelled at me about going into the church. Ponyboy did not look fine. He was very still and had a mask over his nose and mouth.

And I didn't know why I thought my parents would show up. They didn't. It wasn't like they gave a shit about me. Darry and Soda showed up, the hospital must have called them. They came over to me and I looked up at them, thinking they'd be so mad. This, all of this, it was my fault.

"Jesus, Johnny, what happened?" Darry said, his voice sharp with worry. I shrugged, it was too much to go into.

"How's Ponyboy?" Soda said, and him and Darry looked at me with a kind of hopefulness.

"I don't know," I said, and they went off to find a doctor and find out about Pony and Dally, and I drifted along on the high feeling of whatever pain killer the doctor had given me.

When they came back they looked upset, and I didn't quite dare ask them what they found out. Then a bunch of reporters showed up and asked me so many questions that it made my head spin. Then the cops showed up, and I was glad that Darry and Soda were here, at least. At least I wasn't completely alone.

"Johnny Cade?" the cops said, and looked at some paper they had. It probably was all about me killing that soc and they were gonna haul me off to jail. I couldn't believe it. I hung my head. I guessed I deserved it.

They put handcuffs on me and shoved me in the back of the police car, and I leaned my head against the glass and thought about how I didn't even know how Dally and Pony were, and I knew that Darry and Soda had to be pretty mad at me, and my stupid parents couldn't even show up after I'd been gone so long and almost got myself killed.

There was nothing to do. There'd be some juvenile hearing soon, so I guessed I was stuck here until then. I wondered about the electric chair, maybe I'd get that. I killed someone. Maybe Ponyboy wouldn't be okay. I didn't know. I felt sick about it, and whatever drug I'd taken at the hospital was starting to make me feel like I was going to puke.

I rubbed my wrists where the handcuffs were. I paced around the cell for awhile, so sick with worry, sick from the burns and the drugs, I couldn't keep still. This was what I feared, but worse, because now Ponyboy was hurt, maybe dying, I didn't know. He looked pretty bad on the stretcher.

I finally just laid down on the hard cot with the thin mattress and covered up with the gray blanket that was kind of scratchy, and I tried to get some sleep.


End file.
